COMPARING THE EFFECTS OF LANDSCAPE HABITAT DATA COLLECTION METHODS IN A SPECIES OCCUPANCY MODEL
| Author(s) | Anderson, Carolyn | |
| Date Accessioned | 2024-06-12T16:23:55Z | |
| Date Available | 2024-06-12T16:23:55Z | |
| Publication Date | 2024-05 | |
| Abstract | Understanding how species interact with their environment is an essential component of wildlife research. One widely used source of habitat data is the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), which provides 30m resolution raster files of land cover types, created using satellite imagery. This resource is free and easy to use. However, a 30m resolution may not always provide as much information about a landscape as we desire, leading many researchers to collect their own data at finer scales. I investigated how using 30m resolution NLCD data in place of 10m hand digitized data changes the results of species occupancy models for river otter (Lontra canadensis) and mink (Neovison vison). These semi-aquatic mammals play key roles in riparian ecosystems. Often consisting of very narrow patches of forest, riparian areas can easily get overlooked in habitat data measured at a coarser resolution. For this reason, comparing the results of occupancy models created using different habitat data resolutions can provide valuable insight into best practices for habitat data collection. Although there were differences in both land cover and other variables included in my top models and the top models of Holland et al. (2019), my results did not indicate that the coarser resolution data from the NLCD made a significant difference in the results of the species occupancy models for river otter and mink, due to the similar nature of the variables and overall management implications each may pose. | |
| Advisor | enter | |
| Program | enter | |
| URL | https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/34467 | |
| Language | en_US | |
| Publisher | University of Delaware | |
| Title | COMPARING THE EFFECTS OF LANDSCAPE HABITAT DATA COLLECTION METHODS IN A SPECIES OCCUPANCY MODEL | |
| Type | Thesis |